Hennepin Board Reluctantly Comes Down on Property Owner

Image courtesy of the News Tribune
To condemn or not to condemn, that is the question in Hennepin. 

Or actually, can they condemn, how do they condemn, and should they condemn if they even can condemn houses that violate town property ordinances.

“I’m not real big for this, but I’m going to talk about condemning a house. I have no idea how it goes, what the process is to do it, whosE authority it is to do that,” said property maintenance officer Josh Randall. “There is a residence in Hennepin that is not inhabited, hasn’t been inhabited for at least five years. I’m told the pipes are broken and the house is moldy.”

Randall said that while he wasn’t for the government coming in to take someone’s property, he wanted the board to look to the future on how to deal with the possibility of condemning the property, if the issues, both inside and outside, aren’t rectified.

“It doesn’t need an answer,” Randall said, referring to Wednesday night, “but it’s just something to look at in the future as we get more structures, just so we have more direction. I don’t want to bring in a bulldozer and run anyone’s house over. I’d like this property maintenance thing to get to me coming in here because somebody didn’t mow their lawn.”

Randall was told by Mayor Kevin Coleman to start by issuing a citation to the property in question for the outside property maintenance issues until they are all brought up to code.

Source: News Tribune